Jim Cooley Walks Around Atlanta Airport With An AR-15 And 100 Rounds Because 'Something Might Happen'

Jim Cooley of Georgia took his daughter to Atlanta Airport on Tuesday, bidding her farewell with a loaded AR-15. Why? Because “something might happen,” he said (a full-scale alien invasion, judging by the 100-round drum attached).

'O say can you see, by the dawn's early light...'

Cooley was taking advantage of the state’s open-carry laws, which allow him to strut around the airport with the firearm, though he later told the media he was stopped several times local authorities. Writing on his Facebook page after the incident, Cooley reasoned: “It shouldn’t matter what I carry, just that I choose to carry. You never know where something might happen.”

According to RawStory, when questioned by a reporter as to whether it might be alarming for travelers to see a man with a huge loaded gun strapped to his shoulder, Cooley said: “If you don’t exercise your rights, the government doesn’t have any hesitation taking them away.”

Recent Pew polls show an increase in the popularity of gun rights in the US. In research published last December, 57 percent of adult respondents said guns “protect people from becoming crime victims.” Only 38 percent said guns “put people’s safety at risk."